Monumental water system of biblical times uncovered by archeologists near Jerusalem

Archeologists this week completed eight weeks of digging at a cave close to Kibbutz Tzuba near Jerusalem, revealing a monumental rock-hewn water system dating back to the time of King Hezekiah, from the 8th century BCE. Last year the site received world-wide attention with the discovery of a cave said to have been used by John the Baptist and his followers for baptism purposes and cultic rituals. Archeologists say that the new discoveries at the site shed light on the reason why a group of baptizers would have chosen this cave, out of the many thousands existing in the hills of Judah west of Jerusalem, as the scene of their activities.

The archeological work at this site is being undertaken by a team led by Dr. Shimon Gibson and Professor James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the USA, and with the sponsorship of Kibbutz Tzuba and the Foundation for Biblical Archaeology.

This is one of the most exciting sites I have excavated during my entire archaeological career, said Gibson this week. Not only do we have a cave that appears to have been used by a party of baptizers in the 1st century CE, but it would appear that it was chosen for three reasons: for its seclusion, size and antiquity. What baptizers wanted was a place, distant from nearby villages, large enough to contain groups of people coming to be immersed, and ancient enough so that the cultic side of the rituals was put into a context linking them to the time of the Israelite prophets.

The recent excavations have shown that the cave where the baptisms took place was part of a much larger Iron Age water system, rock-cut in places to a depth of some twenty metres (65 feet). It was a monumental enterprise with a vertical shaft, an open horizontal corridor, a flight of stone steps above a tunnel, and three external plastered pools, all of which was on the slope above an underground reservoir. Pottery finds from the site show that the entire water system was built in the 8th century BCE at the time of King Hezekiah, at the same time as the hewing of the famous Siloam Tunnel in Jerusalem. Similar monumental water systems, Gibson pointed out, have been found elsewhere, but hitherto only within Israelite cities, such as at Beth Shemesh and Gibeon. Never before has such a massive water system been found isolated in the countryside without any town or city attached to it.

Such a massive enterprise, archeologists deduce, could only have been a project undertaken by the kingdom of Judah, and it must have been used by the inhabitants of the nearby biblical town of Suba. The dig showed that the water system fell into disuse in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, although the reservoir-cave below was still being used for its water. During the Persian and Hellenistic periods the cave was still partially being used, but was eventually completely abandoned in the 2nd century BCE.

One hundred years after the cave was abandoned, it was reused by a group of people who practiced cultic rituals in the front portion of the cave and who immersed themselves in water at the back of the cave. These rituals were kept up at the cave from the time of John the Baptist himself and until the 2nd century CE. There was also evidence that the baptizers anointed feet with oil in a stone installation. Eventually, the cave was adapted by Byzantine monks to celebrate the memory of John the Baptist, carving an amazing series of large drawings into the walls of the cave, depicting the figure of John the Baptist, his decapitated head, his relic arm, crosses and other symbols. The cave was eventually abandoned with the coming of the Crusaders and the local Christians apparently fled for their lives.

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Remains of the First Temple pool mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah uncovered in Jerusalem(Israel Antiquities Authority)

Sections of the earliest phase of the Shiloah Pool are being uncovered next to the city wall and below the staircase of the Shiloah Pool dating to the Second Temple period. These remains, which probably date to the time of the First Temple, are mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah (3:15): And he built the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the kings garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the City of David. The excavations are being carried out in the City of David National Park, under the direction of Eli Shukron of the Antiquities Authority and Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, with funding provided by the Elad Association and under the auspices of East Jerusalem Development Corporation.

In the continuation of the excavations being conducted in the recently discovered Shiloah Pool, dating to the Second Temple period, a section of the bottom of the pool was exposed, as well as the line of the dam and the fortification that closes off the pool located beneath the steps of the Second Temple period pool. Based on the stratigraphy and nature of the discoveries, it seems that these are the pool, the line of the dam and the fortifications that date to the First Temple period.

In addition, the excavators discovered how the steps of the Second Temple period pool were constructed - the eastern staircase is founded on top of a plastered vault characteristic of the Second Temple period. Two strata were discerned in the stairs descending to the pool: the upper level consists of a stone pavement and the level below it is a layer of plaster. The Second Temple period aqueduct was discovered between the steps and the bedrock cliff at the southern end of the spur of the City of David. In the upper middle part of the pools northern staircase a smaller pool was exposed through which the aqueduct passes. A complex system of drainage channels, some of which predate the Second Temple period, was also discovered in this region.

Northwest of the pool part an open plaza from the time of the Second Temple period was exposed that leads to the pool and connects the street previously uncovered by Bliss and Dickie with the pool. Passage to the open plaza is by way of a stoa of which several columns were preserved; one of the columns bears an engraved inscription. The plaza is paved with impressive stone slabs similar to the pavement of the street that runs parallel and adjacent to the western wall of the Temple Mount. A clover-shaped drainage opening was discovered in the pavement.